Last week, a chandelier made of Gummi Bears made the rounds on the "˜net. I was inspired to look up the history of the Gummi Bear. Did you know Gummi Bears were first produced in 1922?! Candymaker Hans Riegel called them "dancing bears". It wasn't until 1981 that they became widely available in the United States. Besides appealing to kids' tastes, Gummi Bears turned out to be useful in many other ways.

Gummi Bears are candy is wonderful for decorating cakes, and taste better with icing than those cheese-flavored fish. You'll find notes on how this cake was made at Candy Addict, and more notes at Flickr. Here's another cake, this one with bears.

Fashion

Gummis stick to the skin. At least I hope so, in this case. They might be more useful to you as jewelry.

The Arts

Gummi Bears are such an icon that artists are inspired. This Gummi Bear is an oil pastel drawing on paper, for sale through Deviant Art.

The aforementioned Gummi chandelier was made by artist Ya Ya Chou, who also constructed this bearskin rug and other delights (from her website, click on "sculpture" to see the Gummi Bear series).

They lend themselves handily to stop-motion animation. This experimental film uses Gummi Bears for their elasticity and adhesiveness.

In researching this, I came across a lot of references to Gummi Bears and sonograms. Apparently, fetuses go through a stage where they quite resemble the candy! I decided that posting a photo would be too personal, but you can find such photos with a simple search.